Local Sports May 15, 2008


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The Paper photo by Lori Poteet
Crawfordsville High School sophomore Steven Rice struck out nine batters in five innings in the Class 3A No. 6 Athenians’ win.
The Paper photo by Lori Poteet
Crawfordsville High School junior Quinten Anderson steals a base as Southmont High School’s Brayden McKinney tries to make a tag.
Baseball

Wednesday

At Crawfordsville

Crawfordsville 10, Southmont 1

Southmont 000 010 0 - 1 4 1

Crawfordsville 002 026 X - 10 9 3

WP: Steven Rice C. LP: Lucas Miller S.

Southmont runs scored: Derek Linn

Crawfordsville runs scored: Cody Dowell 2, Cameron Hobson 2, Steven Rice, Justin Wright, Quinten Anderson, Brett McKinney, Blake Harris, Mitchell Ray

Southmont RBI: Lucas Long

Crawfordsville RBI: Cameron Hobson 4, Steven Rice 2, Mitchell Ray 2, J.D. Rice

Southmont hits: Brayden McKinney, Derek Linn, Lucas Long, Jared Earle

Crawfordsville hits: Mitchell Ray 2, Brett McKinney, Cody Dowell, Scott Hunt, Quinten Anderson, Steven Rice, Cameron Hobson, J.D. Rice

HR: Cameron Hobson C

3B: Mitchell Ray C

Stolen bases: Southmont 1 (Scott Paris), Crawfordsville 2 (Quinten Anderson, Cody Dowell)

LOB: Southmont 6, Crawfordsville 6

Records: Crawfordsville 20-4 (10-1 SAC), Southmont 11-10 (5-6 SAC)
Reprinted Courtesy of:
Paper Of Montgomery County
www.thepaper24-7.com

By John Groth
Sports Editor

Cousins Steven and J.D. Rice got to relive their glory days.

Before Wednesday afternoon, the two Crawfordsville High School pitchers hadn't thrown in the same game since middle school.

They put that five-year drought to rest - along with the bats of their county- and Sagamore Athletic Conference rival.

Senior Cameron Hobson continued his torrid hitting pace, blasting a grand slam, and the Rice's combined for 12 strikeouts in Class 3A No. 6 Crawfordsville's 10-1 victory over county- and conference rival Southmont at Baldwin Field.

Steven, a sophomore, earned the win - and J.D., a junior, closed out the game.

"It's pretty sweet," J.D. Rice said. "Cousins out there throwing made it fun."

Crawfordsville (20-4, 10-1 SAC) won its second county- and conference game in two days and fifth-consecutive overall. The Athenians will go for a clean sweep at 7 p.m. today against county- and conference foe North Montgomery.

But this game belonged to the two pitchers.

Steven Rice (4-0) kept Southmont hitters off balance and sent plenty down swinging. He struck out nine batters in five innings, including striking out the side in the second inning. But his most important play came on the defensive end.

With Crawfordsville leading 2-1 in the top of the fifth inning, the Mounties had runners on first and third base with two outs.

They had just scored their lone run, on sophomore Lucas Long's RBI single, and had Tanner Hill up to bat.

Hill hit a ground ball near first base, making Hobson race up from first base to come get the ball.

As Hobson fielded the ball, Steven Rice ran behind him and towards first base. Hobson turned and flipped the ball to Rice - who dove (although he admitted he tripped) and still managed to slide his glove across first base before Hill stepped on the bag.

"I tried to make it look graceful," Rice said. "That's one of the plays we've been working on as a team. That's been one of my main problems all year - I haven't been able to get to first base all year."

Steven Rice added a two-RBI single in the top of the fifth inning, pushing Crawfordsville's lead to 4-1 before Hobson turned the game into a rout.

With the bases loaded, Hobson crushed a grand-slam to right field, giving the Athenians an 8-1 lead.

It's Hobson's fourth home run this season and second in his last three games. He hit a walkoff home run in the bottom of the eighth inning last Saturday's Athenian Invitational championship game, giving Crawfordsville a 3-2 win over Park Tudor.

J.D. Rice relieved Steven in the sixth inning. He allowed only one hit, and just like his cousin, struck out the side in one inning - the top of the seventh. After

"Coach Welliever just said 'let it go, let it loose,'" he said.

Froedge planned to have both Rice's pitch in the game - even admitting that Steven went a little further than he expected. But there's not anything wrong with that.

"I wanted to get Steven Rice the start," he said. "He's 100 percent now. I wanted to push him a little bit. You never know when we might need him to come in and have a start in the postseason. J.D. just needs to get more innings."

Southmont coach Adam Acton only wishes he had enough extra pitchers.

Southmont has to play four conference games this week and with Acton forced to play musical pitchers for the second-straight game, the Mounties weren't able to find a groove.

Acton used four pitchers - Lucas Miller and sophomores Trevor Woodcock, Logan Petry and Tanner Hill - during Wednesday's game.

All four struggled with their control, as they combined for eight walks and five hit batsmen.

Miller started and walked three in 2 2/3 innings pitched. Woodcock hit two batters in his 1 1/3 innings pitched. Petry walked three and hit a batter in 1 1/3 innings pitched and Tanner Hill walked two and hit a batter in his one inning.

"We had some tired arms," Acton said. "Our pitching is not deep and it caught up with us. I can tell when a pitcher loses his stuff. All four pitchers pitched (Tuesday) night at least a little bit. I knew they did not have a lot of gas. When they ran out of steam, that's when they came out."

Acton better hope they still have some fire left, as Southmont plays at 6 p.m. today at conference rival Lebanon.